Talk:Creation myth

Please add creation myths from various cultures.

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Hint to whoever created this page: when you create a new page, don't make it a minor edit. Otherwise most people won't see it.

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A creation myth is a specific type of myth? which tells how the Universe, the Earth, life, and/or humanity came into being. A myth is just a story for which there is no documentary or scientific proof.

Is there a way to revise this paragraph to indicate that a 'myth' usually dates from antiquity?

And that the authorship is always untraceable? I mean, it's too late for anyone to create any new myths, because the rest of us would know who wrote it -- or at least when.

Yes, but that kind of detail should go into the myth article, not here. That's why I linked to it. :-) --Dmerrill

--Ed Poor

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"it's too late for anyone to create any new myths"

I don't think this is true at all. Witness for example the belief that UFO's may bring wisdom or danger from other worlds.

Bingo! I stand corrected. --Ed Poor

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The closing paragraph is a paragon of NPOV:

In the USA, religiously conservative Christians argue that the modern notions of the Big Bang and evolution constitute the creation myth of modern Western civilization. Adherents of these scientific theories respond that unlike the creation myths of earlier cultures, they are subject to verification and refinement by the scientific method, rather than believed only on grounds of authority and faith.

I suppose it's neutral enough, although the second sentence appears to be a non sequitor. I had thought that "creation myth" was being used to label a story about origins that had an impact on a culture, without regard to its veracity. The point of calling the Big Bang theory a creation myth is not to dispute it, but to point out the role it has in shaping the self-image of the society or societies that believe it, similar to the roles that other creation myths have played in different parts of the world and different times in history. If that's the working definition, then any arguments against calling the Big Bang a myth would need to be sociological, i.e. that it hasn't actually shaped the self-image of the societies that subscribe to that view. Which may be perfectly true for all I know. Wesley

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I have a mythology class at my college at the moment so I am rather interested in this subject... one class session we had a lecture led by a philologist, one of the very few who knows ancient Syriac (sp?). He stated that the Genesis description of the creation of humans was a mistranslation, and examination of the oldest texts gives something like "God caused humanity to pause, and he took strength from it and made from it [the strength] the ability to procreate." He based this on the following translations:

• "adam" - man OR humanity in general
• the word translated as "sleep" also means "stop, pause, delay"
• the word translated as "rib" (he pronounced it something like tseyla or tseila, I'm not sure of the spelling) actually has a primary meaning of "strength" and only the seventh or so meaning is "rib".
• "hava" or "hawa" (translated as Eve) meaning the ability to procreate.

Since I doubt he was a "crackpot," I'm wondering if you have any information on these alternate translations. Do you think the article on creation myths should reflect this uncertainty in translation?

I honestly have no idea. However, for one thing, Genesis was written in Hebrew, not Syriac. I also think it somewhat unlikely that traditional understandings going back millenia are wrong, but I suppose they could be. -- SJK

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I was just mentioning that he knew Syriac as a sidenote. The translation was from Hebrew. --KamikazeArchon

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The Documentary Hypothesis[?] is not hypothetical all the way through. There are elements of it which are purely observational. The hypothetical part is that separate sources were redacted, edited and merged together, to explain the distinct shifts in character evident in the text - that's the only reason that I didn't think that "hypthetical authors" is redundant. In any case, RK's revision is a more accurate description of what the hypothesis is, in my opinion. — Mkmcconn

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I think the section on the Biblical creation story (specifically, E's) needs work although I am not sure how to proceed. My issue is that the Hebrew text ought not to be translated as "In the beginning;" I am not sure but I think Rashi (or a modern critic) has addressed this. One can read it as something like, "When God began to create the heaven and earth, all was mixed up" or something like that. The point is, this text may not be describing the creation of the universe out of nothing. As the more recent revisions of the article make clear, this account of "the creation" is more the imposition of order on chaos.

I call attention to this because I think most "creation myths" are not actually concerned with explaining where the cosmos comes from; they take some sort of physical universe for granted, but do try to explain how the current order of things came about. Slrubenstein

Even many who believe that God did create from out of nothing, do not necessarily base this belief on Genesis 1. It comes from other Biblical places, more explicitly. The little bit of Hebrew that I know would certainly support the translation that you mention up to the part about "all mixed up", which is more of a paraphrase. Jacob also somewhere called "tohu va bohu", the same phrase - not just "all mixed up", but amounting to nothing, devoid of potential, like a desert: and out of him God made a people for himself, full of promise. The same idea is here, in Genesis 1. In the opinion of many scholars, conservative as well as liberal, Genesis is not directly concerned with the origin of mere matter. The narrative opens on a desolate scene, not a nothing. — Mkmcconn

Your sentence, "In the opinion of many scholars, conservative as well as liberal, Genesis is not directly concerned with the origin of mere matter," very precisely describes what it is I think the article should make clear. Also, (obviously, when discussing the Bible) it is important to distinguish between the meaning the text had to those who first wrote and read it (to the best of our knowledge), and the meaning of the text to current readers. My point was not that many people today "wrongly" use the Bible as a creation myth to explain the origins of "mere matter." My point was that however the text is used today, thee are other meanings in it that should be made clear. I.E. the same text may have been used by people today and people 3,000 years ago, but that does not mean they had the same creation myth. Slrubenstein

I'll go ahead and try to figure a place to put that sentence, then. As for the other issue, I think that it's best not to make vague allusions to meta-meanings (not saying that's what you suggested). But if an example of how time and circumstance alter perceptions of meaning can be made to fit the scope of the article, that would be useful, I think. — Mkmcconn

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This article is currently highly skewed towards the Jewish and Christian craetion myths. The amount of text devoted towards Genesis in comparison to other creation myths is quite significant. soulpatch

I agree; and I think that the best solution to that problem is to expand the other creation stories. — Mkmcconn